I like honda carb. bowls they have a drain plug which alows you to drain the tarnished gas or stick the carb. cleaner nozzle up the drain hole and clean it out. WHAT AND IDEA! brigg and tec you have to remove the bowl and clean out the insides at minimum, then you risk a change of a fuel leak or damaging the thin cheap fuel bowl, gaskes, or carb.

TEC or brigs carb. only plug up from lack of pre-ventive maintance or improper storage. Over time any carb will eventually tarnish up and plug the fine passages and will not start due to lack of fuel flow. This is why it so important to to treat, drain, and periodiclly disassemble the carb and clean it or the equipment will be useless.

This procedure is not hard and anybody that can change spark plugs, air filters, or blades can do it, if they are incline or movitated enough to learn. Hears the easy part most manufactures (like Walbro, or zamma have detailed instruction on cleaning and rebulding there carb.'s on there site all you got to do is goggle it and search there sites.

Carbs do seem to be the special weakness of Tecumsehs. In 20 years I've never done anything to the B&S carb on my Troybilt tiller-or any of the many other things I have with Briggs engines. The 6hp HH60 Tecumseh on my latest Troybilt is the second of that brand I've owned.(I have a 7hp HH70 on an old Sears mower from the early 60s). Both of them have required more than their share of fiddling with the carbs. I'm a big fan of cast-iron motors,so I overlook these minor faults. I was at a car swap meet a few weeks ago, and picked up a complete HH60 from a Troybilt tiller cheap-now I have a spare.

Depends on how long you let the TEC set. Run them regularly you would probably not have any problems. Let them set over winter with plain gas or corn gas then in spring they are tarnished up and it would be a crap shoot if the started and ran normal.

rcmoser: Don't be fooled into thinking you can spray away varnish;a very little,yes but anything that is bad enough to cause trouble will not be sprayed away;it has to be taken apart to be cleaned.And you have it backwards;It is the honda carb wich is cheaper made,not the briggs or certainly not the tecumseh's!!The older All adjustable carbs from tecumseh ARE/were the best in the industry Period. The carbs on briggs don't have a good idle system,and Honda carbs are the worst in the industry ,because they are calibrated WAY too lean,and they have a poor idle system,worst than briggs,and little can be done about it,because the honda's are cheaply made,unlike the nice carbs on briggs or better yet the beautiful gems;tecumseh's...they are superior to all,ESPECIALLY Honda's!!

The carb. on my tec early 90s is by far not the gems IMO your talking about. compared to the early 90s honda it's made cheaper (I don't have anything newer to compare to). you must be talking about pre 80's????

All I can say is when the honda acts up from setting (on a gen. and may gets used 2 hours a year if that)which is rare All I do is remove the drain plug from the carb bowl (Who would of thought to put a drain plug in the carb. Bowl) wash it out with carb. cleaner and it fires and stays running!!!?. Course the carb bowl has to be made out of a material strong and thick enough to tap and hold a plug which is not on the tec or briggs. When I compare the two I see more material which IMO means stronger.

As for my honda GX it has run prefectly from day one and only after I neglected it for over a year it was hesitent to start on the third or fourth pull. Notice I said hesitent not like the tec which I have to spend 5 mins priming and spraying carb cleaner down the venturi to keep it running long enough to unplug itself or warm up enough to run cause it don't have a choke. As for briggs I don't have issues with them especially the old ones (pre 80's).

You have your opinion and I have mine based on my observation of the three engines (don't have the briggs anymore I dumped it at garage sale) I had about the same age at the time. I won't say you have it backwards cause that is your opinion I will reframe from going there. well today anyway.

Tecumseh carbs are a crap shoot. Some get so gunked up , they will never run right. Others clear out just by keeping them going with shots of carb cleaner until they start running on the gas in the tank. A rusty tank has killed more than one B+S engine for me.

I ran my first Ariens snow blower for about 35 years with a 7HP Tecumseh engine. The only repair I had to make was to replace an exhaust valve once. My newer Ariens has the Tecumseh 9hp snow king engine. It is easy to start, and runs great. My only fear is the fact Tecumseh has gone out of business, and I worry about engine service if and when it is needed. I wrote to Ariens about my concerns, and they never even answered my email. I would have appreciated any information about future Tecumseh parts support on one of their better grade blowers, but I guess they just don't want to talk about it. Hopefully, this engine will run as well as my first one. I would hate to lose a machine I paid over a thousand dollars for because of some simple engine part I can no longer get.

Tecumseh is back again, under new ownership or whatever. Check out the news on Google.

baymee,
Where did you see Tecumseh is back? I have not been able to find information about that. Charles Ranheim

It's been discussed in a few threads on this forum. There are some people who live nearby who were following the developments.

Nothing on Google?

-from an article in the Wisconsin State Journal, 9-8-2010, Certified Parts Corp has made an agreement with Liquid Combustion Technology to manufacture and distribute the Snow-King engine line, formerly made by Tecumseh Power. I don't know where the manufacturing will take place, but LCT is located in South Carolina.

If you are an old Small Engine Tech from the 60s 70s, you respect the toughness and power of a Tecumseh. You also remember that they were monsters and more precise to time compared to Briggs. I felt that had to do with their good power. They were my favorite to use but not to tune..

Do you feel any engine will have the quality as in the past, "even with the new technology"? Loger

The newer engines don't have the mass of the former engines but the tolerances are probably much closer. With good lubrication, they might last longer.

At this point, I am not considering "planned obsolescence".

LCT makes the Powerhorse line of engines for the Northern Tool products. From there reviews there decent and I believe they are made in China. I bet the snow kings will be made there as well.

I looked up the web-site for Liquid Combustion Technology, and it looks like "den69rs96" is very likely correct. LCT is located in South Carolina, but the engines are made in China. I had hoped that somehow, some way, the Tecumseh engine line would remain in the USA, preferably Wisconsin.